If you haven’t already heard, BMW’s R&D teams have been busy “innovating.” Unfortunately, they aren’t focusing on the things that actually matter—like stellar engine performance or the legendary driving dynamics that gearheads love. Instead, the C-suite execs decided that the best use of their engineering budget was to design a proprietary security screw specifically intended to prevent BMW drivers from fixing their own cars.
At first glance, it’s almost cute: a screw head shaped exactly like the BMW logo. But the novelty wears off the moment you consider the physics. Because this head prioritizes branding over utility, neither the bit nor the screw head can withstand the torque of a standard Torx or Hex fastener. The result? Broken bits, stripped screws, and more time spent on what would otherwise be a simple task.
It’s a masterpiece of anti-functional design. To the casual observer, it seems to serve no purpose other than to look “cool”, but when it comes to the nitty gritty of DIY repair, it ensures that a standard toolbox is useless for basic maintenance. In fact, the patent explicitly states this as a function of its design in section [0006]: “…to prevent being loosened or tightened…by unauthorized individuals.”
This type of insular protectionism isn’t a one off either, it’s baked into the corporate culture. Our CEO Kyle Wiens observed this firsthand during a visit to BMW’s Recycling and Dismantling Center (RDC) located in Landshut just north of Munich, Germany. It’s a peculiar, one of a kind facility that recovers materials from pre-production and prototype vehicles that will never reach consumer hands. The RDC processes a few thousand vehicles each year which represents only a tiny fraction of the more than one million cars BMW produced in 2025 in Germany alone.
BMW doesn’t seem shy about declaring the RDC’s mission either, proclaiming it a “template for the industry” while stating: “In view of new regulations and the BMW Group’s ambitious targets, the RDC will play an even more important role going forward…” (italics for emphasis). New regulations certainly have a way of encouraging ambitious targets, that’s for sure.
Their barely-passive hostility towards repair and recycling is even less hidden on the operations floor. As Kyle noted during his visit, BMW’s engineers developed a clever tool to drain oil from shock absorbers so the oil could be reused: “When a member of my tour group asked if BMW sold it to other refurbishers, the man holding the tool looked confused, as though the suggestion was patently absurd. That tool was their intellectual property; it was developed by BMW for BMW. And the patent they filed for the tool ensures that no-one else can invent something similar.” So much for a “template for the industry.”
“That tool was their intellectual property; it was developed by BMW for BMW. And the patent they filed for the tool ensures that no-one else can invent something similar.”
Kyle Wiens; “Intellectual property is putting circular economy in jeopardy” for The Guardian
In BMW’s defense—and the defense of an ever-growing list of manufacturers desperate to gatekeep their ecosystems—this isn’t their first dumb idea. Heck, they’re not even the first to use security screws, the first dates back to the one-way screw of the early 1900s. Since then, we’ve seen a parade of “tamperproof” fasteners flood the market, including some very insidious designs like the Pentalobe screws used on iPhones.
The justifications are always the same: anti-theft measures or “protecting” the user from dangerous components. While those excuses might hold water for public infrastructure or high-voltage utility boxes, they fall apart when applied to consumer products. In your garage, these aren’t safety features; they are barriers to ownership.
To be clear, it’s not like we’re anti-new screws or anything, as evidenced by our resident mechanical engineers waxing poetic about the functional benefits of strip resistant Torx Plus screws when compared to regular old Torx or Hex. Fasteners, like all things, are subject to improvement over time and we’re all for it. That’s not what proprietary security screws are designed to do though.
As with any cash-grab engineered to stifle repair, the DIY community isn’t taking it lying down. Our friends over at Adafruit didn’t even need a physical screw to win this round; they used BMW’s own spurious patent filings to map the dimensions and 3D-print a replica bit to defeat the lock.
This is where BMW’s plan hits a wall. We’re living in an era where the efforts of industrial giants can be unraveled by a hobbyist with a $200 printer and a bit of ingenuity. The fact that a grassroots effort can dismantle a multi-million dollar “security” initiative in a matter of days speaks volumes.
The tide is turning. Across the US, we’re making massive strides in securing the right to repair our stuff, and that includes both commercial and consumer vehicles. In this climate, BMW’s move to lock down hardware with proprietary screws is tone-deaf and will be seen for the desperate cash-grab that it is.
